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The photos were taken by an urban explorer (Image: IMP Features/Brian Romeijn)

The photographer said he felt like he was stepping into a time machine (Image: IMP Features/Brian Romeijn)

"When I step into an abandoned site it feels like stepping into a time machine," he said.

"I try to feel the emotions of its past and that is what I want to show in my pictures.

“When people are looking at my work and raise a question about the 'what, why, when' then I feel I have succeeded.”

Moth-eaten seats in the carriage (Image: IMP Features/Brian Romeijn)

The train used to be at the height of luxury (Image: IMP Features/Brian Romeijn)

Some Orient Expresses have been re-purposed rather than being to rot – the Venice-Simplon Orient Express boasts revamped hotel suites, for example.

The Orient Express was created by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL), travelling most famously through Paris and the old city of Constantinople, the original endpoints of its timetabled service.

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The train formed part of a complex network across Europe (Image: IMP Features/Brian Romeijn)

The train is steeped in history (Image: IMP Features/Brian Romeijn)

CIWL soon developed a complex network of luxury trains across Europe, including the Blue Train, the Golden Arrow and the North Express.

The first Orient Express left Paris for Vienna on June 5, 133 years ago.

It was originally called the Express d'Orient and was officially renamed the Orient Express in 1891.

A steward in the dining car of the Orient Express in its heyday (Image: Getty)

The Orient Express in Monte Carlo in 1977 (Image: Getty)

The original route, which first ran on October 4, 1883, was from Paris, Gare de l'est to Giurgiu in Romania via Munich and Vienna.

In 1982, the Venice-Simplon Orient Express was created as a private venture, running restored 1920s and 1930s carriages from London to Venice.

Tickets cost £2,500 as wealthy leisure travellers became attracted to the service.

Tickets for the service were pricey (Image: Mirrorpix)

The glamour and dense history of the train has lent itself to the plot of books, films and TV programmes over the years.

It went down in history as the setting for Agatha Christie 's Murder on the Orient Express, considered the most thrilling of all the supersleath's whodunnits, which is now being re-made into a star-studded Hollywood blockbuster.